


Always, Like A Girl

by Chiharu



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M, Gen, Genderbending, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-18 01:22:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3550838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiharu/pseuds/Chiharu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aida Riku will not stop until he takes the Seirin Girls’ Basketball Team to the top. Warning for genderbent!Seirin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always, Like A Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for bps's "Girls" challenge and posted [here](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/post/112826261058/challenge-no-114-always-like-a-girl).

Class 2-C’s Takeda Minami-chan is already waiting when Riku arrives behind the art building. “Aida-kun,” she says, eyes wide as Riku silently calculates her stats in his head: lean, small, and not an ounce of sports talent conveyed in her posture. Her hands, however, are covered with splotches of dried paint. It’s unfortunate that Riku isn’t a fan of the arts.

"Thank you for meeting me here," Minami says, shuffling to balance herself on her right foot, then left. Her eyes are fixed firmly on the ground when Riku extracts the love letter from his pockets. Honestly, Riku doesn’t know how to deal with shy, fumbling girls. He’s grown too accustomed to Izuki’s pick-up lines, Hyuuga’s unpredictable shouting, and Kiyoshi’s lack of respect for personal space.

"Thank you for the letter," Riku says, tucking his hands into the pockets of his uniform. "But unfortunately, I’m not looking for a girlfriend right now."

"Ah!" Her face flushes as she looks up at him. "Do you… Have someone you already like?"

"Like?" Riku pauses, scratching his cheek. "Not really. I just don’t have time for dating at the moment. I made a promise to be the best coach I could be, so I owe it to my team to stay focus." He gives her a small smile. Riku isn’t very good at making speeches. If anything, he prefers yelling and beating sense into his players. Still, he wonders if she can read the determination in his eyes. "We’re not stopping until we become No. 1 in Japan."

Surprisingly, this makes her smile. “I understand, Aida-kun! I, too, want to help the art club grow, but I’ve always lacked ambition and drive. When I saw you coach the girls’ basketball team at the Interhigh, I was so impressed by you and wanted to share your enthusiasm.”

"Let’s both work hard, then!" Riku tells her, grinning.

"Yes! Thank you for your time," she adds before bowing. He catches a small smile on her face as she bids him goodbye and returns to club activities.

Riku watches her receding figure and wonders why he’s never thought of dating before. He supposes that managing ten girls was the equivalent of being a stand-in boyfriend. More than once, he’s had to make runs to the conbini for hot water bottles, feminine products, and emergency chocolate. It wasn’t exactly what he signed up for, but Riku wouldn’t trade his job for anything. His new-found enthusiasm, however, disappears when he rounds the corner and runs into a group of girls huddling behind the wall.

"Ack!" Koganei yelps, knocking over the row of bicycles next to her as she takes Hyuuga and Izuki down in the process. Behind them, Kiyoshi stands at a respectable distance and smiles benevolently at Riku.

"Ah, the spring time of love!" Kiyoshi says, looking ridiculous with her track pants underneath her uniform skirt. In fact, they’re all still clad in uniforms. "Riku, you’re so popular!"

What an idiot, Riku thinks. He doesn’t point out that it’s nowhere near spring yet. “Why haven’t any of you changed? Practice started ten minutes ago!”

"Don’t worry!" Koganei reassures him. Her pigtails flop a bit when she jumps up. "We made sure the first years were warming up properly!"

" _You_ should be warming up!"

"Hey Coach," Izuki says, helping Hyuuga set the bikes upright. Her hair is pulled into two fishtail braids today. Riku, knowing what’s coming up, just wants to pull on them to make her shut up. "Do you know why bicycles can’t stand on their own? It’s because they’re two-tired~"

Riku ignores her and turns to Hyuuga. “Do you have anything to say, Captain?”

Hyuuga, to her credit, just stands upright and push her glasses up the ridge of her nose. “No, Coach.”

"Go change for practice," Riku tells them as he readjust the clips holding his bangs back. "Then do ten laps around the baseball field before you join the first years."

Izuki pouts. “I hate running around the baseball fields. I always wondered why the baseball is getting bigger. Then it hit me!”

"Twenty laps," Riku says. That sets them off on a hurried dash towards the club room, Hyuuga slapping Izuki on the head while Kiyoshi chuckles behind them.

Thankfully, Mitobe and Tsuchida are hard at work when Riku arrives at the gym. He watches her team for a bit before calling Kuroko away from doing cross-court dribbles. “Your performance is down by twenty percent today,” Riku says when Kuroko comes shuffling up to him.

"I’m sorry," Kuroko replies blankly.

In response, Riku pulls a hair tie off his wrist and hands it over. He used to carry around normal rubber bands, but gave in and bought the tangle-free ties from Daiso after receiving one too many complaints. Koganei had nearly cried when Riku called her to the bench last month – “That hurt, Coach! Be gentler!” “Then learn to tie your hair properly or cut it!”— and forcibly tied her hair into a messy ponytail.

Thankfully, Kuroko takes it wordlessly and pulls her hair into a small ponytail. She nods when Riku tells her to go back, and Riku watches as the girls complete their dribble drills and move onto shooting practice. Kiyoshi and Hyuuga are the first ones to return from running laps, Kiyoshi looking comparatively happier than a scowling Hyuuga.

Riku thinks about what Minami-chan said about the Interhigh. It’s true that Riku poured all of himself into coaching Seirin, but he wasn’t the one sweating blood and tears on the court. It’s true that people often question Riku’s motivation in coaching an all girls’ team, but _they_ don’t understand what it feels like to be greeted with a dozen girls, still half-asleep in their bare faces, at morning practice. They don’t see Hyuuga’s determination every time they’re told that girls shouldn’t play sports. But, now that Kiyoshi is back, the Winter Cup will be different. Riku knows it in his bones.

"You seem to be thinking a lot today," Izuki says when practice ends, and the others are slowly filtering out of the changing room. Even the first year trio seems livelier these days, now that Riku has begun focusing on their individual skills. "What’s on your mind, Coach?" Izuki asks, combing her fingers through her now loose braids. 

Riku looks at her and thinks about the hours Izuki spent training with his father. “Nothing much. How’s your technique coming along?”

"I’m working on it," Izuki says with a small smile. "But it takes a lot of time to perfect. Speaking of time, have you ever tried to eat a clock? I hear it’s very time consuming~"

Thankfully, Kiyoshi’s appearance saves Riku from having to respond. Kiyoshi seems to have given up on her skirt, and is wearing her sailor fuku top over track pants. Riku rubs his temples and reminds Kiyoshi to put something warmer on.

"How’s Kagetora-san?" Kiyoshi asks while swimming into her overlarge sweater.

Riku takes a moment to bid Kuroko and Kagami goodbye – He suspects that they’re heading to Maji Burger again—before returning to the conversation at hand. “My old man is in Kyoto for a sports medicine conference. He’ll be back this weekend.”

"How lonely it must be to return to an empty home!" Kiyoshi insists. "You know, I’m going to Izuki’s house for dinner."

"Mai is on a school trip and Aya is busy with her boyfriend," Izuki explains, tying her now wavy hair into a loose bun. "Kaa-san is making a lot of extras now that Kiyoshi is coming over. You should join us, too!"

The last time Riku ate with Izuki’s family, he had to sit through a two hour pun battle while Izuki’s mother refilled Riku’s bowl again and again. Still, the food was amazing and seems more promising than the left-over curry waiting for him at home. “Okay,” Riku says at last. “Let’s wait until everyone packs up. Then we can lock up the gym.”

Hyuuga is the last to emerge from the locker room, still toweling her hair when Izuki and Kiyoshi descend on her, flanking her on both sides. “We’re all going to dinner at Izuki’s!” Kiyoshi declares without giving Hyuuga a choice. Their captain looks pained, but agrees nonetheless.

"So, I’ve been thinking," Izuki says as they cross the sky bridge in pairs, her shadow taking on strange colors against the railing as cars pass below them. "You didn’t actually reject that girl."

"I did," Riku says in response, resisting the urge to kick Izuki’s leg as he walks behind her.

Kiyoshi looks over at Riku and sighs peacefully. “You did, but then you asked her to work hard with the implication that there may be another chance when you both achieve your goals. It was very vague, but full of meaning and possibilities.”

"This isn’t a shoujo manga," Hyuuga reminds them, turning around to glare at Kiyoshi.

"I wonder what kind of manga someone could write about my life," Kiyoshi asks with an air of seriousness. Her wrinkled sweater smells of soap and detergent, and Riku wonders if she’d just dug it out recently.

“So?” Izuki asks Riku, almost as an afterthought.

"We’ll see when the time comes," Riku replies, scrolling through his phone absently. He pauses upon running into Hyuuga’s back. When Riku demands to know why they’ve stopped, Hyuuga just makes an excuse about her shoe laces. Really, it’s not that Riku would seriously consider dating Minami after the Winter Cup, but rather he doesn’t have time to think about anything besides school and basketball until then.

Hyuuga doesn’t say anything after that, so Riku listens to Izuki chat with Kiyoshi about her sisters. Riku thinks it must be nice to have siblings, but he can’t imagine how overwhelming his old man would be if he did have one. If anything, coaching Seirin sometimes feels a lot like chasing down his misfit sisters. Walking with them now, Riku remembers how he first watched Izuki and Hyuuga play together in middle school. Now they’ve both shot past him in height, and Riku can’t even find it in himself to be jealous. His train of thought is stopped when they arrive at Izuki’s house and are greeted by a perpetually smiling Izuki-san. “Hello girls and Aida-kun! It’s so nice for you to join me. I even made extra kalamari on the side tonight. You can say that I had an _ink_ ling we’d get more guests!”

Riku gives Izuki-san a wry smile while Kiyoshi happily compliments her humor.

Thankfully, dinner is tame and consists of an over large pot of sukiyaki. Izuki-san keeps adding more to the pot even after Riku has exhausted his appetite. “Remember,” Izuki-san tells them when Riku sets his chopsticks down. “When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.”

"I already made a clock pun in front of Coach today, Kaa-san!" Izuki says, sounding uncharacteristically offended. Still, she pulls out a small notepad and begin jotting something down.

Hyuuga, for the most part, eats her food quietly and periodically wipes the fog off her glasses. The rest of dinner goes by quickly as Kiyoshi engages Izuki-san in conversation about gardening, of all things. They help clean up the table later, and Riku is distracted when he spots Izuki’s dog in the back yard.

"Riku, you really have a soft spot for dogs," Kiyoshi comments, sitting on the patio with Hyuuga while Izuki helps her mother clean up in the kitchen. She grins when Riku comes over to them with Potato in his arms, making room for Riku between herself and Hyuuga. They sit in comfortable silence with Potato whining periodically, nudging his face into Kiyoshi’s hands. It’s not until Izuki joins them that Kiyoshi says, almost randomly, "We’re going to win the Winter Cup."

"Yeah," Riku says and means it.

 

 

The next morning, Riku meets Hyuuga en route to school. Practice had been canceled for the day due a scheduling mix-up with the volleyball club, and Riku had slept an extra two blissful hours before jumping into his uniform and heading out. Hyuuga is waiting at the intersection, sipping on a box of banana milk with her ribbon untied. It reminds Riku of Hyuuga’s poor attempt at delinquency at the onset of high school.

They don’t bother with small talk from the traffic light to the school gates, Riku yawning as Hyuuga pulls out another juice box from her bag. She hands it over while Riku quietly stabs the straw in, and they fall into a comfortable pace until Koganei and Mitobe join them.

"It’s that time of the month again!" Koganei chirps as Riku makes a face. "What? No. Not _that_ time! I mean, the cafeteria has restocked its bread selection!" She insists with a blush on her face while Mitobe nods supportively.

"That’s nice," Riku says absently while flattening fly-aways on the back of his head. "I’m going to class. See you at lunch."

He’s surprised, however, when Hyuuga storms out of the classroom at the first ring of the lunch bell. Riku shrugs and takes out his left-over curry, making conversation with his classmates about their upcoming presentation. He’s slightly confused when half of the lunch hour has passed and not even Kiyoshi has dropped by their classroom. It’s not that Riku ever made plans to eat lunch with his team, but more often than not Izuki or Koganei would join them in the classroom to trade bentos or play cards.

Riku pauses. Izuki and Kiyoshi had both been on their best behavior at dinner last night. Afterwards, Riku and Hyuuga had walked Kiyoshi partially home, Kiyoshi towering over them as passing neighbors greeted their incredibly tall center. He wonders why none of the team has made an appearance yet, since annoying him tends to be their top priority during lunch time.

His questions are answered a few minutes later, when Riku is interrupted from reviewing his training notes by a group of people crowding around his desk. Riku blinks when ten hands thrust out offerings of food, and he stares as the entire girls’ basketball team surrounds him. “What’s going on?”

"We got you all the specialty breads from the cafeteria, Coach!" Furihata insists, sounding out of breath as if she’d fought a long and arduous battle. From the look of things, she wasn’t the only one. Fukuda and Kawahara nod next to Furihata as they hold onto their own bread, looking determined. Mitobe is slightly flushed and Kagami’s short hair looks even messier than usual.

Riku turns to Hyuuga, who is thrusting out her own squished, albeit fresh bread. “Why?”

"Mitobe says she wants to thank you for being such a good coach and taking care of us!" Koganei explains for the quiet girl. "Me too! Well, all of us, really!"

"It was pretty crazy out there," Izuki says, standing between a blank-looking Kuroko and an amused Kiyoshi. "A student even got hit in the head with a can of soda! He was lucky it was just a soft drink." For once, Riku doesn’t even feel annoyed with her pun.

"It’s not Valentines yet, and this isn’t chocolate. But…" Tsuchida trails off, smiling.

"Please accept our feelings, Coach!" The team chorus, each presenting Riku with a sacred item from the cafeteria. His classmates whistle and giggle around them, commenting on how much effort it must have taken the girls to procure all the food.

"Okay," Riku says and can’t help the grin on his face. "But I can’t eat all of these, so let’s all share."

As his classroom is taken over by a group of tall girls feeding each other, Riku turns to Hyuuga. “I’m touched, Captain.”

"Let’s all work hard together," Hyuuga tells her, an echo of Riku’s own words. Riku knows for sure that it’s a promise.


End file.
